In the past couple of weeks, while tearing up some Washington Street pavement as part of a $600,000 "green street application," Onondaga County work crews came upon an old rail line hidden beneath the blacktop.

The work is on the eastern border of downtown. It's being financed by a state grant, with a result that will include new sidewalks, green areas, a parking lane and a significant "capture" of stormwater near the Syracuse Center of Excellence, according to Matt Millea, a deputy county executive.

In the parlance of engineering, Millea described the old railroad as "an unfortunate subsurface condition," which slowed down the job while the crews did "mitigation" ...

Meaning, they had to pull it out.

Still, it is an interesting point of history that the tracks run in the shadow of Interstate 81. Tom Hunter of the Onondaga Historical Society said the line was most likely part of the old New York Central system, which once ran across open city streets toward a downtown terminal.

The street-level railroad was dangerous, smelly and obstructive. Comedians mocked that rail system, while civic officials argued for decades about how to solve the problem - debate reminiscent of the back-and-forth about whether to rebuild or level the I-81 bridges - until community leaders finally arrived at a solution in the 1930s. The city pieced together about $20 million - an extraordinary amount during the Great Depression - for an elevated railroad system with a new station on Erie Boulevard, a building now used by Time Warner Cable.

The entire system wasn't finished until the early 1940s. In an unfortunate and unexpected historical twist, passenger service soon plummeted in Syracuse - undercut by the airlines - and the station, before long, was converted into a bus depot.

In other words, what had been was not the best indicator of what was coming, which may be the best lesson for all of us now.
- Sean